The present invention relates to informing sound generation methods, apparatus and computer programs for generating sound to auditorily inform activation of vehicular operator devices that can be activated in at least two directions or symmetrically opposite directions.
Heretofore, it has been conventional for vehicles, such as motor vehicles and motor cycles, to generate informing sound that informs activation of a direction indicator (i.e., blinker or winker), such as ticktack operating sound of a winker relay, or voice announcement, such as “the vehicle is turning right” or “the vehicle turning left”.
However, although the relay operating sound can inform the vehicle driver that the direction indicator is now in operation, they are unable to inform pedestrians and/or the like near the vehicle whether the vehicle is turning right or turning left. Further, although the voice announcement can inform pedestrians and/or the like that the vehicle is turning right or left, it may become annoying noise in some cases or tends to be useless in cases where announced words are hard to recognize due to ambient noise etc. Furthermore, pedestrians and/or the like near the vehicle have to listen more or less carefully to the voices to understand the meaning of the voice announcement. Thus, with the conventional techniques, it has been difficult to inform vehicle's behavior in such a manner that pedestrians and/or the like near the vehicle can readily recognize the vehicle's behavior, practically through intuition, with no misunderstanding.